Chandigarh (Gurpreet) TERI ENVIS, sponsored by Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change, has done a Case Study on The Kalgidhar Society, Baru Sahib’s initiative as Largest Solar Energy Project in Rural Institutions. This case study has been published in ‘Compendium of Renewable Energy and Climate Change Case Studies in India – Volume 5’.
The 97-year old Shiromani Panth Ratan Baba Iqbal Singh Ji, President of The Kalgidhar
Society, who had been working with nature throughout his tenure with Himachal
Agriculture Department, emphasized on the adoption of more economic and green option
of solar energy to reduce the huge electricity bills and parallel fight against the global
warming. Vision was to utilize the vacant rooftops of the schools to harness the sun to
enhance the sustainability and reduce the carbon emission as much as possible to save the
Mother Earth. A total of 3750 solar panels were installed for 1.2 MWp project. A total of
approximately 1.3 lakh square feet of the rooftop is covered under this project.
The adoption of solar at The Kalgidhar Society was initiated a decade ago with projects like
Himachal Pradesh's first stand-alone 200 kWp solar power plant, 18,000 LPD solar water
heating system, concentrator thermal solar system for community cooking to feed 5500
people every day, SPV street lights, and many more solar systems at Eternal University in
Himachal. This solar wave spread to many academies and numerous solar plants were
installed. The efforts of The Kalgidhar Society were recognized and honoured by the
Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) with a solar award in 2016 along with the
certificate of an appreciation from the power minister of India.
This solar PV project will reduce 35,000 metric tonnes of carbon emission over 25 years,
which will be equivalent to planting of 82,000 trees. Annual savings in power bills are
expected to be around 1 crore. This Solar Project can help in uplifting the rural education
and shine the lamp of education in underprivileged families of rural India. The organization
aims to install solar panels in all its 129 schools to enhance its efforts towards brightening
the education lamp in a more sustainable and greener environment.